Knowing that the National Security Agency can pretty much intercept and de-encrypt any electronic communication or piece of snail mail you ever send or receive, that the massive storage of cell-tower usage and other geopositioning systems can vet your actual location pretty much anytime and anywhere, that someone near you – via a police dash- or street- or store-cam or a nosey neighbor with a smart phone with a video function or perhaps the new Google Glass – might be recording your every move for eventual upload to who knows where… well might make you a tad queasy. Add face recognition software and all sorts of private drones, well someone (you?) now has the capacity to track and feel virtually every moment of your life.
As the intrusive Obama administration attempts to create new rules to assuage squeamish Congress people and citizens with heightened NSA concerns (which bugs more than a few governments we have tracked as well), as hackers take down the New York Times and seep deeply into Pentagon computers, governments are struggling with structuring what they can and cannot do, what they perceive they must do and how to pretend that they are nice and fuzzy while they are drilling into personal lives as if they had an Orwellian right to do so. There are those in our nation who believe that Edward Snowden should get the Nobel Peace Prize while others are waiting for an announcement of his capture or mysterious death.
Today, I will look at one small part of the attempt to makes sense of new rules being formatted for the private use of drones. Make no mistake, they are coming… and not the model aircraft that hobbyists have toyed with for years. But will these commercial uses just replace weather and traffic helicopters for local news programs or is there a potential for FAA-regulated ground control of way too many private little nasties in the air, some buzzing and loud, others silent and stealthy. How close to structures can they get? They’re smaller and more maneuverable that aircraft with people in them. How powerful can their lenses (vibration corrected and stabilized) and sensors be even if they “fly high”?
“American companies have long clamored to use drones, which each year become smaller yet smarter. But while theFederal Aviation Administration, which regulates the nation’s airspace, has given a limited go-ahead to the police and other public-sector agencies to use drones, almost all commercial use has been banned.
“That will change in 2015, the year that Congress has required the F.A.A. to come up with rules to integrate drones safely into American skies. After that, for example, farmers will be able to buy or rent drones to monitor crop conditions. Real estate agents will be able to offer aerial tours of their listings, using drone cameras to capture shots from angles seldom seen. And engineers may use them to inspect bridges and highways.” New York Times, September, 7th. The government drones have abilities and capacities that are downright scary, and there is little reason to believe that, if corporate America wants that sophistication, absent rules to the contrary, it will be a snap to implement.
While electronic intrusion is more devastating than most people surmise, the vision of a big brother hovercraft following and tracking your every move is, to put it mildly, even more innately creepy. Will private detectives be able to track principals negotiating complex corporate mergers, husbands and wives on the prowl for extra-marital sex, fishermen sliding over to their secret and abundant fishing ground, oil exploration sites that belong to competitors… and the list goes on and on. Lying will be harder, but so will finding solace and solitude.
“With their increasingly sophisticated cameras and software, the drones are game changers in the world of surveillance, saidJay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union… In the past, the substantial cost of traditional, piloted aircraft has imposed a natural limit on the use of aerial surveillance. But drones, which are far cheaper, could profoundly change the character of public life, he warned… The A.C.L.U. wants to prevent government agencies from using drones for ‘pervasive, suspicionless mass surveillance,’ Mr. Stanley said. Even if such surveillance is forbidden in the future, ‘there’s real potential for the government turning to the private sector to do what it is banned from doing itself,’ he said.
“‘It’s part of a larger question — whether people want to allow the government to track, collect and store data, and perhaps rewind the tape on anyone’s life, finding out in great detail what individuals have been up to should they for any reason fall into the spotlight of government attention,’ he said.
“Commercial drones could also become the newest tool for companies seeking to collect consumer data, said Parker Higgins, an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based digital rights group… ‘We carry around devices that broadcast our identity to anyone who’s interested in finding it,’ he said. ‘Drones will be another way for companies to collect endless streams of data about individuals.’” NY Times. Companies? No Fourth Amendment protection against that kind of sleuthing. How about the step between government and private functions? Just as the United States government engaged “contractors” to interrogate Abu Ghraib prisoners during the Iraqi War or subpoenaed private phone and GPS records from wireless carriers, is the government able to use this private database for itself in spite of the Fourth Amendment?
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Yup! That’s the Fourth! So tell me, privacy fans, what are your darkest fears about this potential?
I’m Peter Dekom, and perhaps I can see your most private moments up on YouTube soon!
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